


Birds and Shales and Puppy-Dogs' Tails

by violasarecool



Series: What Can 8 Grey Wardens Do? [26]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Birds, Gen, Mabari Puppies, reminiscing about da:o
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 08:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16829026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violasarecool/pseuds/violasarecool
Summary: talia may or may not have a small fear. alistair distracts her with talk of dogs and his previous adventures





	Birds and Shales and Puppy-Dogs' Tails

It was early afternoon, and Alistair and Talia were waiting for the rest of their patrol to join them out in the sunny courtyard in front of Vigil's Keep. Alistair stood quietly, face turned up toward the warm sunlight, content to wait while the weather was so nice. He kept being pulled out of his happy revery, however, by small noises from one side. Human noises.

He opened one eye. "Talia?"

"Yes?" Talia said tersely.

"What are you doing?"

He watched as Talia took another step closer to him with a noise somewhere between a hum and a whine, eyes focused on something a few paces from her feet. "Nothing."

Alistair peered around Talia, then stopped as his eyes came to rest on a small shape on the ground. "That's a pigeon," he said, blinking at it dumbly.

"Yes," Talia repeated. She took another step away as its pecking circled closer to her feet.

Alistair looked between Talia and the pigeon, mouth quirking up in a bemused grin. "Are you afraid of birds?"

"No!" Talia exclaimed, a little too loudly. "No," she repeated, a little quieter, "I just don't want the nasty things _touching_ me." Alistair snorted, and she glared at him. "Don't laugh at me!"

"No, I'm not, I swear," Alistair said, holding up his hands in a pacifying manner—or possibly just to protect himself in case she decided to hit him. In fairness, she wasn't ruling it out. "It's just... we used to travel with a golem who'd say the same thing." He grinned. "This huge hunk of rock, who could probably squish you or me to a pulp, would say things like 'there may be pigeons nearby! We should be vigilant!'" he said, mimicking Shale's scratchy voice.

Talia snorted. "Wow. You traveled with a golem?"

"That's not half of it," Alistair said. "Our party in a nutshell? Two circle mages, an orlesian bard, a dwarf, an antivan assassin, a Witch of the Wilds, a Qunari warrior, and yes, a golem."

"That's quite the menagerie," she said.

"Oh, also a mabari, and at one point, an Orlesian Warden. Well, you know him," he added, "that was Fox. And you know Oghren, and Zevran. And the dog, I suppose," Alistair said, grinning, "who, by the way, seems to be getting along _rather well_ with your mabari." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "And you know what happens neeext...."

"Alistair, Ori's a boy," Talia said, giving him a sideways look. "Just like Cerberus. Besides, the _last_ thing we need is a litter of puppies getting underfoot."

"Aww," Alistair said, with an exaggeratedly disappointed look, "and here I thought I'd finally get to be an uncle."

Talia narrowed her eyes at him. "We're not related."

"Honourary uncle, then."

"They're _dogs!"_

"They are," Alistair agreed. "And they _could_ be dogs with puppies! Just imagine their little oversized paws running through the Keep."

"Just imagine waking up to those _little paws_ walking all over your face," Talia said grimly.

"What?" Alistair exclaimed, "no, dogs don't do that, I think you're confusing them with cats."

Talia crossed her arms. "Alistair, when I first got Ori, he woke me up every morning by jumping on my stomach, my face, and if that failed to wake me, he'd pull the blankets off my bed and run halfway across the castle with them."

Alistair gave a delighted laugh. "Wow, that's—sorry, that's incredible, does he still do that?"

"Oh, I trained it out of him," Talia said, "but it took a _year."_ She shook her head. "Never again."

"Amazing." He stared ahead, mouth stuck in a wide grin. "Sorry, what were we talking about before puppies?" His gaze fell down to the pigeon which had meandered several metres away as they talked. "Ah, yes. Vigilance against pigeons," he said solemnly.

Talia giggled.

"Should I go scare it off?" Alistair asked, with a half-grin. "Run it off our land?"

"No, it's fine."

"Mmm, I think I'm gonna do it anyway," Alistair said, eyes narrowing into a devious grin. A moment later, he was running toward the pigeon, flapping his arms wildly at it as he yelled at the top of his lungs: "Hey! Flap off!" The bird nearly tripped over its own feet in alarm as it tumbled into the air, flapping desperately away from Alistair's antics.

Talia doubled over laughing.

"That was fun," Alistair said, grinning as he watched the bird fly off. "I'd say Shale would be proud," he said, turning to walk back to Talia, "but Shale would have just squished it."

"Ew."

"Bit harder for those of us without _stone arms."_

"A bit."


End file.
